Oracle Rejects Google’s $3 Million Offer to Settle Patent Dispute

Ahead of an upcoming trial in April over claims that Google’s Android operating system has infringed on Java patents, Google has offered to pay Oracle $3 million plus a portion of its Android platform revenue in an attempt to reach a settlement without the need for a jury verdict.

The web giant had offered Oracle less than 1 percent of Android revenue, but Oracle has already rejected the offer for being too low, according to reports citing a court document filed on Tuesday. In July, it was reported that Oracle was seeking billions.

“Oracle cannot agree to Google’s proposal that Oracle waive its constitutional right to a jury trial,” said Oracle lawyers in the filing to U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, seen by the AFP. “Although there are issues for the Court to decide, there are substantial questions for the jury as well.”

Google has denied patent infringement, and argued that Android was allowed to use the Java technology when it was owned and developed by Sun Microsystems because the technology was then intended to be open source.

The email was written in August 2010 by Tim Lindholm, a software engineer at Google, to his superiors. He suggested that Google would have no choice but to start licensing Java as no other technologies would be suitable for use within Android and Chrome.